Cyber squatting hits four-year high

February 2006

Illegal acts of cybersquatting, where people abuse trademarks or domain names, are surging to their highest level in over four years, The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has warned.

The growing trend of falsely registering websites or trademarks has climbed 20 per cent year-on-year, resulting in 1,456 cybersquatting cases during 2005.

The results show criminals continue to train their sights on the dominant .com domain, but a new batch of top-level domains in April provided fresh impetus.

Last year's unveiling of website addresses ending in .travel and .jobs led to the higher number of cybersquatting cases, many of which concerned recently registered domain names.

A further unveiling of TLDs, which may focus on developing nations or national cities, is due to debut in 2006, underlining the need for continued vigilance by intellectual property owners, WIPO said.

In a warning to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Organisation urged the creation of 'robust mechanisms' to safeguard IP holders from wrestling with cyber criminals.